Burning with passion

Stand

Love is blind to potential hazards – which is one of the reasons why it is so powerful

7:00AM BST 10 Aug 2014

There is no health and safety when it comes to love: Romeo didn’t think twice about scaling that balcony to see his darling Juliet. But sometimes, a little common sense wouldn’t go amiss. One man who wanted to impress his girlfriend decided to spell out her name in tealights on their bedroom floor, along with a love heart. All very thoughtful, but for one detail: naked flames and carpets don’t mix. Or, to put it another way, they mix all too well. In the ensuing fire, most of the bedroom was destroyed and the house filled with smoke. Happily, no one was injured.

This is far from history’s first example of a grand romantic gesture gone horribly wrong. A suitor called Reed Harris of New Mexico, US, once dropped an engagement ring into his beloved’s milkshake, expecting her to find it and swoon. Unexpectedly, however, she was challenged to a drinking contest and sucked the glass dry. Mr Harris whispered to her that she had just swallowed an engagement ring – and proved it to her with an X-ray. She said “yes” – as they left the hospital. Love, it seems, is blind to potential hazards – which is one of the reasons why it is so powerful. Lovers just need to make sure that the flames of passion never become literal.